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Smash Comics Vol 1 19
Supporting Characters: * Steve Antagonists: * Slash Scraponi Other Characters: * Corny Hogan * The warden of Bedlam Island * Prisoners of Bedlam Island Locations: * Bedlam Island Items: * the Ray's magni-ray Vehicles: * Harbor Patrol boats | Writer2_1 = Vernon Henkel | Penciler2_1 = Vernon Henkel | Inker2_1 = Vernon Henkel | StoryTitle2 = Wings Wendall: "Bullet Plane" | Synopsis2 = Wings Wendall now has a very zoomy Bullet Plane, painted solid yellow, does 1000 mph. Wings and sidekick Spinner Benson are in the Caribbean foiling an enemy scheme that involves replicas of US warplanes and a bomb-laden suicide submarine, piloted by an unnamed glamorous lady spy, in yet another attack on the Panama Canal. | Appearing2 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Spinner Benson Antagonists: * lady spy ** her many minions Other Characters: * Locations: * ** Vehicles: * Bullet Plane | Writer3_1 = Harry Campbell | Penciler3_1 = Harry Francis Campbell | Inker3_1 = Harry Francis Campbell | StoryTitle3 = Scarlet Seal: "Impersonated and Framed" | Synopsis3 = | Appearing3 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Captain Pat Moore Antagonists: * Shiv Nagol Other Characters: * Yet Sing Locations: * Items: * Vehicles: * | Writer4_1 = Jack Cole | Penciler4_1 = Jack Cole | Inker4_1 = Jack Cole | StoryTitle4 = Midnight: "Graft" | Synopsis4 = Radio announcer Dave Clark stumbles across a game of orphans and graft, and only as the eerie Midnight, outlaw friend of the needy, is he able to bring about justice. | Appearing4 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Antagonists: * Other Characters: * Old Man Dobbs * Bobby Locations: * Items: * Vehicles: * | Writer5_1 = | Penciler5_1 = Alex Blum | Inker5_1 = Alex Blum | StoryTitle5 = Purple Trio: "Tiny Falls In Love" | Synopsis5 = | Appearing5 = Featured Characters: * ** ** ** Supporting Characters: * Antagonists: * some 5th column thugs Other Characters: * John Allen * Mrs. Allen impersonator Locations: * Items: * Vehicles: * | Writer6_1 = Lane French | Penciler6_1 = John Celardo | Inker6_1 = John Celardo | StoryTitle6 = Espionage Starring Black X: "The Training Camp Murders" | Synopsis6 = Black X, famous espionage agent, is summoned to Washington by the Chief of Staff. Army draftees are mysteriously dying at a training camp. The plan is for X to enlist as a raw recruit “''but be extremely cautious about the food and drinking water,” . Black X only has one eye but he gets inducted anyway, it’s not even mentioned, in fact this post's doctor acts suspiciously in a bunch of ways, and X notices it. Weeks of arduous drilling go by. One day at bayonet practice half the squad falls down and dies, the doctor diagnoses this as “''an epidemic of throesis strepigitis” and he inoculates the whole platoon including Black X, with who-knows-what. Further investigation leads to X busting the doctor, shooting him up with his own medicine, and surreptitiously bringing him to the camp gate where a sentry doesn’t let him pass until he takes off his hat and the sentry recognizes that monocle, it’s Black X. Nobody up until now had noticed this; he’s worn this monocle every day; but now this kid suddenly does, okay, it does say "famous espionage agent" right there in the caption. Anyway Black X forces this doctor to direct him (driving what must be the doctor’s car) to the spy gang’s hide-out, no back-up, no nothing, and they get there and the doc squeals a warning, so there’s a fistfight / gunfight. Other bad guys all go down one way or the other, then the doctor gets to work on an antidote for his delayed-action poison. “''Hours, days, weeks pass in desperate experimenting. Three months are almost up,” when he figures it out and the troops are cured. | Appearing6 = '''Featured Characters:' * Supporting Characters: * Chief of Staff Antagonists: * unnamed Army doctor Locations: * unnamed Army boot camp | Writer7_1 = Art Pinajian | Penciler7_1 = Art Pinajian | Inker7_1 = Art Pinajian | StoryTitle7 = Invisible Justice: "Arctic Tropical Forest" | Synopsis7 = Flying over the Arctic part of Alaska, on a National Geographic photo-shoot, Kent Thurston and Chuck Somebody are shot down and bail out and land in a tropical forest. A prehistoric elephant and a prehistoric tiger, both of which look like the regular modern versions of themselves, are nearby and get into a fight. Kent and Chuck meet the English-speaking cromagnon tribal chief Belthor, owner of the elephant, who has met other, evil white men and learned their language. The valley is heated by volcanic activity. The evil white men are Gordon Stack, fugitive, and his crew of ex-whalers, and they’ve set up an oil-drilling camp, enslaving the cromagnons in the process. Stack stupidly imprisons Thurston in an empty oil tank, where he changes to the Invisible Hood and sneaks out, and frees Belthor, who goes off and brings back a squad of elephants. The camp is trampled and Chuck and Kent expect to quickly repair their plane and take Stack back to the states for trial. | Appearing7 = Featured Characters: * Antagonists: * Gordon Stack Other Characters: * Chuck, Kent's friend * Belthor, cromagnon chieftan Locations: * above the , a lost valley teeming with prehistoric life Vehicles: * photography plane | Writer8_1 = Bob Powell | Penciler8_1 = Bob Powell | Inker8_1 = Bob Powell | StoryTitle8 = Abdul the Arab: "Shauri" | Synopsis8 = | Appearing8 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Hassan Antagonists: * Other Characters: * Locations: * Items: * Vehicles: * | Writer9_1 = Paul Gustavson | Penciler9_1 = Paul Gustavson | Inker9_1 = Paul Gustavson | StoryTitle9 = Magno: "Airliners into Bombers" | Synopsis9 = Tom Dalton is a passenger on a Stratoliner 4-engine commercial airliner which gets hijacked by foreign agents to the North Tip of Alaska. There an outlaw airport is managed by an evil geezer in a commodore’s hat, who declares that all the passengers are now prisoners of war. The modern airliners are being converted into bombers, and four days from now will be sent directly back to their origin-points. “By that time, the fleet will be off the Pacific Coast with half a million troops! Haw!” That night Dalton changes into his Magno outfit and sneak-fights his way across the airport to the badguy small-arms locker and steals a bunch of automatic rifles, which he brings back to the other prisoners, then proceeds to the evil geezer’s office and beats him up. Getting flung out a window, the big bearded still-not-named blue-uniformed evildoer runs across the airfield and fights his way into the cockpit of one of the converted bombers and takes off. He plans to take out his own airfield, and Magno, with some 500-lb bombs, but Magno’s super powers get him aboard the flying bomber, disarm it, and get him inside, where he forces the still-not-named bad guy to fly to Washington and turn himself in. | Appearing9 = Featured Characters: * Antagonists: * unnamed traitor ** his many minions Locations: * outlaw airport at the North Tip of Vehicles: * small fleet of Stratoliner commercial airliners | Writer10_1 = Vernon Henkel | Penciler10_1 = Vernon Henkel | Inker10_1 = Vernon Henkel | StoryTitle10 = Chic Carter: "The Lamas of the Red Dragon" | Synopsis10 = | Appearing10 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Antagonists: * Other Characters: * Locations: * Items: * Vehicles: * | Writer11_1 = George E. Brenner | Penciler11_1 = George E. Brenner | Inker11_1 = George E. Brenner | StoryTitle11 = Bozo the Robot: "Poison Gas Getaways" | Synopsis11 = Hugh Hazzard responds to a rash of bank robberies by setting up a 24-hour vigil in the financial district. The robbers have been escaping by car to an airfield then by biplane to their unknown base, and they’ve already knocked down one pursuing police plane in a mysterious way, killing two aircops. Whatever they used, it also works on police cars, and the next day they kill another two cops by causing their car to crash. (Trick was, badguys pumped poison gas out the exhaust of their getaway plane and car, so pursuers who got too close died.) It doesn’t work on Bozo the Iron Man, who catches the getaway car and beats up the robbers. They won’t tell how they did their murders, but Hazzard finds a big gas cylinder in their car, threatens them with it briefly, and busts it open, right there on a downtown sidewalk; poison gas bursts out and kills 3 robbers; a 4th has already escaped. Bozo aerially shadows the 4th to his hideout and his boss, Cardi, and after a short fight they’ve both been gassed to death. | Appearing11 = Featured Characters: * ** Antagonists: * Cardi ** Cardi's robbery gang Locations: * financial district Vehicles: * getaway airplane * getaway car | Notes = * Espionage ** Based on internal and previous evidence, this story is estimated to take place circa 1940-Dec-thru-1941-Mar: (“Weeks of drilling” plus “three months”) equals (this story takes four months to get thru six pages). ** Black X must have adopted some fake name, under which to enlist, given that "Richard Spencer" has been officially dead for years; this is never mentioned. * Also featured in this issue of Smash Comics were: ** Archie O'Toole: "Madame La Zinga", by "Bud Thomas" ** Wun Cloo, by Gill Fox ** Jimmy Christian: "The Mummy Speaks" (text story), by Robert M. Hyatt | Trivia = * The Ray: "Slash Scraponi's Escape" is reprinted in The Quality Companion (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2011). * Alex Blum signed his Purple Trio story as "S.M. Regi." * Art Pinajian signed his work on Invisible Justice as "Art Gordon." * Bob Powell signed his pencil work on Wings Wendall as "Powell Roberts." * George Brenner signed his work on Bozo the Iron Man as "Wayne Reid" * (somebody) signed his work on Archie O'Toole as "Bud Thomas." * Harry Campbell signed his Scarlet Seal story as "Duane Byrd Monroe" * Lou Fine signed his work on The Ray as "E. Lectron." * Will Eisner signed his work on Espionage as "Will Erwin." | Recommended = | Links = * Read the complete issue at the Digital Comic Museum * Smash Comics #19, Feb 1941 }}